2017 US Open Promotion Plan

ADPR 4000: Sports Promotion Project Fall 2016Dr. Pokrywczynski

Sophia LococoVanessa DennisAmber Russell

David CochraneSacar Anim

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 2

Client Overview 3

Situation Analysis 3-8

SWOT 3-5

Consumer Review 5

Industry Review                                 5-7

Market Review 8

Target Audience 9

Promotions 9-13

Objectives 9-13

Strategies 9-13

Tactics 9-13

Social Media 14-20

References 21-22

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IntroductionFox Sports Wisconsin is an American regional sports network first launched on

April 1, 2007. Fox Sports Wisconsin is currently available through cable providers all

throughout Wisconsin and certain parts of Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and Minnesota. Fox

Sports can be streamed via satellite or online through FoxSports.net. Fox Sports

Wisconsin streams all major National Football League, Major League Baseball, National

Basketball Association, National Hockey League, National Collegiate Athletic

Association, and local high school games. You can also find live updates on sporting

events on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Both of these sites have

updates on current games and information for viewers.

In 2015, Fox Sports began a partnership with the United States Golf Association

(USGA). Founded in 1894 by the merging of five country clubs, the USGA formed a

governing body that would organize championships and enforce the rules of golf. In

1985, the USGA administered the first United States Open of Golf. Today, there are 13

different competitions that the USGA organizes and has expanded from the original five

country clubs to over 9,700 members. 2017 will be the first time the U.S. Open

tournament will be held in the state of Wisconsin since the start of this tournament in

1895.

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Client Overview

      The 2017 United States Open Championship of Golf, also referred to as the U.S.

Open, will be held at the Erin Hills Golf Course just 35 miles away from Milwaukee,

Wisconsin. The U.S. Open is a national championship tournament that happens yearly. It

is among the Masters, PGA Championship, and The Open Championship as the four

men’s major golf tournaments. It occurs during the month of June or July throughout the

country at various world renown golf courses.  

Erin Hills will be the sixth public access course in the history of the USGA to

hold the U.S. Open. Additionally, attendance is estimated to be more than 35,000 daily,

with staff and volunteers roughly around 5,000. There are many benefits of hosting the

U.S. Open, including the $130 million anticipated revenue throughout the community,

(Erin Hills).

Situation Analysis

SWOT:

Strengths: Erin Hills Golf Course is emerging as one of the best in the country. With the

opportunity of hosting the USGA event there it will only attract more golf fans to the

venue. This will be the first time that the U.S. Open will be held in Wisconsin and seeing

that other Golf Championships have been held in Wisconsin successfully, the excitement

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of a competition of this magnitude will bring out a lot of people. People in Wisconsin

have a strong love for sports and golf viewership in Wisconsin is only growing.

Weaknesses: Although this event is quite popular, some people have expressed how it

can be hard to travel to. With the golf course being in Hartford, WI, it won’t be as easily

accessible to those people flying in because the main airport is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,

which is about 40 minutes away from Hartford. The network has also discussed how

pricey it can be to broadcast the event. With this being Erin Hills first major golf event

there isn’t any guarantee that they will have a huge turnout of fans.  Although Erin Hills

is great golf course Hartford, Wisconsin isn’t exactly a vacation destination. Although

social media will create great exposure for us, it might actually decrease viewership of

the Open because people can find out all the live information from tweets, articles, or

various other live media outlets instead.

Opportunities: Although there might be some minor issues with hosting this event, it’s a

great chance for FOX sports to expand their audience since this is only their second year

under an USGA contract and the first time the U.S. Open has been in Wisconsin. This

tournament is a valuable opportunity to expand the game of golf and gives fans the

chance to volunteer. This is also a chance for surrounding business to feed off the event

and the amount of people that will be in the city. As for Erin Hills, their name will be

broadcasted across the nation which gives them the opportunity to build a brand that is

known nationwide.  

Threats: There are many things to take into consideration when hosting an event. There

could be questions as to whether or not local accommodations for spectators can be met.

The U.S. Open, because of all of the traffic, parking, and living conditions, could impact

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local residents. In cases such as this one, we try our best to not only accommodate the

people at the event but also the surrounding areas. Also, the weather in Wisconsin can be

an unpredictable threat. Even though the event is held in the summer, it is very possible

that there is rain or high winds which would impact the performance of the golfers and

the attendance.

Consumer Review

The total number of golfers today in the U.S. peaks at almost 29 million. The

percentage of the U.S population who actually play golf is 9.6%, of which 77.5% are

male and 22.5% are female, (Pringle). Consumers under the age of 30 years old only

make up 5%, making this segment the smallest. Ages 50-59 currently have the highest

percentile rate at 24% (Pringle). Concerning the U.S. Open consumers, statistics remain

consistent with the previously mentioned data but are considered more avid golf fans. It

is mostly white males, with a 70 percent to 30 percent lead over women according to Fox

Sports 1. The average age is 50-55, where almost 70 percent of people have a college

degree as well as at least a $60,000 median income per individual. Geographically

speaking, the Northeast has 17.7 percent, East Central 12.4 percent, West Central 15.8

percent, Southeast 20.8 percent, Southwest 15.1 percent, and the Pacific 18.3 percent.

However, since the tournament is in Wisconsin, the Erin Hill’s attendees will consist of

mostly Midwest residents.

Industry Review

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The U.S. Open has produced some of its lowest numbers on record over the last 3

years. The 2016 final round earned a 3.4 rating and had 5.4 million viewers, which is

down 19% from 2015 (Paulsen). Viewership peaked between 7:30-8:00 p.m. during the

final round at 9.6 million, making it the 2nd least-watched final round since 1987.

The 2nd and 3rd rounds of the tournament were down 21% from 2015, receiving a

rating of 2.2 and having only 3.3 million viewers. Again, these numbers are the 2nd worst

ahead of only the 2014 numbers. Pittsburgh (7.8), Minneapolis-St. Paul (6.4),

Greensboro, NC (5.7), and Tampa-St. Petersburg and West Palm Beach tied (5.4) had the

highest ratings for the final round in 2016 (Ratings). These ratings were important

because they gave us specific cities to target when running promotions. We used this data

to form part of our plan that involves Minneapolis, specifically. It seems that the ratings

for the U.S. Open have dropped drastically over the last three years, and Fox broadcast

two of them. The graph below represents the amount of people that watched a golf

championship in 2015. Of the five shown, the U.S. Open is the second most watched

championship.

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Statista 2016

The majority of the people who watch, and play golf are older males. In the last

12 months, 29 million people claimed to have played at least a single round of golf

(Harden). Males make up 77.5% of this group, and 83% of people who played were 45+

years old.  Many of these people are married and well educated as well. 68% are married,

and 67% attended or graduated college (Harden).

        The demographics of people who have watch golf on television are very similar to

the ones above. According to GfK MRI, 66.74% of the people watching were males, and

70.72% were 45+ years old. These statistics show us that the demographics of people

consuming golf are much older than our target audience; so developing a campaign to

reach multiple age ranges will be key to bringing in younger people.

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Market Review

In the year 2015, Fox Sports 1 had an average of 161,000 viewers nationwide

(Brown 2015). In Wisconsin alone, 1.5 million homes had access to a Fox Sports

network. The rapid growth of the Fox Sports networks has allowed for fresh and unique

approaches to broadcasting, thus strengthening relationships with various sports

organizations. The relationship with USGA in particular, strives to “grow golf

viewership, fandom, and participation”(McDonald at el. 2016). For the 2016 United

States Men’s Golf Open at Erin Hills, Fox Sports will broadcast 120 hours of live

coverage from the  U.S. Open championships on three networks as well as the

“FoxSportsGo” app. The massive venue will accommodate enough people to fill

approximately 20,000 cars per day. Tickets are priced at three levels, Gallery, Trophy

Club, and 1895 Club seats which can cost anywhere between $50 for one Gallery ticket

up to $1,875 for one 1895 Club seat (Erin Hills). The USGA works in accordance with

the Wisconsin State Golf Association to “promote and advance the game of

golf”(WSGA). Three champions have come out of Wisconsin , one bring a winner of a

U.S. Senior Open and a two winners from U.S. Women’s Open. There are over 500

courses scattered across the state, some of which have been hosts to several PGA

Championships.Andy North, an American Golfer from Wisconsin, has been on the PGA

tour twice bringing home two wins during the U.S Open.

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Target Audience

The target audience are millennial males ages 16-35. Income is relatively low seeing as

our demographics are recent college graduates or currently enrolled students. As for

psychographics, they are interested in social media and content sharing, connecting with friends,

and value diversity. Unfortunately, in the past years, golf interest has gone down among this

group (Powell 2014). Geographically speaking, we are targeting millennials on a national level

considering we are only striving to increase interest and viewership.

The secondary target audience focuses on consumers by using the escalator approach. By

having the USGA integrated with the culture of the Midwest, it will retain already existing

customers, really focus moving casual customers to returning customers, and possibly sparking

the interest of potential new customers. Currently the majority of existing customers in the world

of golf is white men between the ages of 50-75. Using sports bars and breweries would be an

effective way to access that segment of this large market while seeing people who might fall

under a different segment.

Promotions

Objective/Strategy/Tactic

Primary Objective: Increase interest in golf and Fox viewership among millennials from

under 5% to 10% by mid 2017.

Strategy: Among the top reasons why millennials have become disinterested in the sport

of golf are the lack of diversity, its exclusivity, and personal relevance. Other sports such

as basketball and baseball can be played with upwards of ten friends while golf is

suggests no more than four. In order to combat these findings, we will create a campaign

that will show that golf is diverse and can be enjoyed by many, not just one race or

ethnicity.

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Tactic: In order to express the diversity in the USGA, we will broadcast short videos on

social media about various international and multicultural players. These videos will be

titled “Swings of Life” playing on the word “swing” and the fact that they come from

different backgrounds. The videos will include personal stories, humorous anecdotes, and

golf statistics. This will allow the audience to connect with players on a more personal

level. Examples of players include:

Tony Finau- United States, but also the first Tongan and person of American

Samoan descent to play in the USGA

Anirban Lahiri- India

Matteo Manassero- Italy

Carlos Ortiz- Mexico

Romain Wattel- France

Secondary Objective: Promote ticket sales for the 2017 U.S. Open in the greater

midwest area by mid 2017.

* Since this is the first time the U.S. Open has been held at Erin Hills, let alone the state

of Wisconsin, we don’t have any comparable statistics.

Strategy: In order to increase ticket sales, there must be an interested audience first. To

do this, we will have fun activations and appearances that will merge golf with the

midwest culture. In Wisconsin in particular, brewery tours and local sports bars are a

huge part of the culture so by having live activations at said places, the Wisconsin

residents will feel at home. Examples of bars include, Major Goolsby's, New Glarus

Brewing Company, Sand Creek Brewing Company, etc.

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Tactic 1: Playing on the golf term “tee,” we plan on creating activations called Tee

Parties. These activations will be mini putting greens, on-site interviews, and fun U.S.

Open trivia at Midwest breweries and sports bars. Every winner and participants will

receive free U.S. Open golf swag such as; hats, tshirts, coozies, etc. At every activation

site there will be an information booth and a place to purchase U.S. Open Erin Hills

tickets (with permission from the business). To promote the activation, event

notifications will be emailed to members of surrounding public and private golf courses.

U.S. Open activation staff will encourage participants and activation attendees to post on

social media with the hashtag #USOpenTEEParty. The U.S. Open social media platforms

will repost these to promote future activations.

Example Designs:

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Tactic 2: Another way to integrate the U.S. Open and Midwest culture is by having

USGA golfers make appearances at baseball games- highly attended sporting event for

the midwest. An example of the title would be “Lee Janzen FORE the Minnesota Twins”.

This promotion would involve a USGA golfer making the first pitch of the game. Seeing

that Lee Janzen is a Minnesota native, he would appeal to the fans and culture there.

Before the pitch, an announcer would introduce Janzen and give some information about

the upcoming U.S. Open. We would advertise these upcoming appearances on social

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media such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to connect with our demographic. By

using these sites we can engage with our target consumers and increase the percentage of

young viewers.

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Social MediaJanuary February March April May June

Week 1

Tweet FacebookTweet

InstagramTweet

TweetFacebook

FacebookInstagram

Live Tweet/Facebook/Instagram

Week 2

TweetInstagram

TweetInstagram

TweetFacebook

FacebookInstagram

TweetFacebook

Live Facebook/ Tweet/Instagram

Week 3

FacebookTweet

FacebookInstagram

FacebookInstagram

InstagramTweet

TweetFacebook

Post event highlights on all media

Week 4

InstagramFacebook

Tweet Tweet Instagram TweetInstagram

Post event highlights on all media

A few Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook sample posts shown below (in order) →

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Resources :

Association, W. S. G. (2016). About the WSGA | Wisconsin state golf association.

Brain, S. (2016, November 7). Golf player demographic statistics. Retrieved November 15,

2016, from Sports.

Brown, M. (2016, July 13). FS1 is seeing the strongest growth among all national cable sports

networks. Forbes.

Brown, M. (2015, August 10). In Second year, FOX sports 1 making progress on catching

ESPN. Forbes.

D’Amato, G. (2015, September 7). Planning for 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills gets underway.

Retrieved November 15, 2016.

Erin Hills. (2016). 2017 U.S. Open. Retrieved November 15, 2016.

President, S. V. (2016). People who watched the U.S. Open (golf) on TV (USA), 2015. Retrieved

November 15, 2016.

Glauber, B. (2015, August 17). In Wisconsin, golf is major indeed.

GOLFstats. (2016). Scores, statistics and analysis for the world of professional golf.

Harden, S. (2016, October 30). Golf Player Demographic Statistics. Retrieved November 16,

2016, from http://www.statisticbrain.com/golf-player-demographic-statistics/

Paulsen. (2016, June 23). U.S. Open ratings low for Third straight year. Retrieved November 15,

2016.

The PGA tour audience. (1995). Retrieved November 15, 2016.

President, S. V. (2016). Number of golfers in the USA, 2015.

Pringle, T., Anderson, K., Hodgson, P., & Doyle, A. (2014, January 27). The demographics of

golf- inside the mind of a golfer (Infographic).

Ratings, S. T. (2015, June 19). U.S. Open golf coverages averages 3 million viewers in

primetime; 1.5 million for 8 hours on cable. Retrieved November 15, 2016.

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Stachura, M., Beall, J., Myers, A., & Weinman, S. (2015, April 30). Number of golfers steady,

more beginners coming from millennials.

Ventures, E. I. (2016). 2017 PGA golf statistics.

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